Bodhidharma 菩提達磨 (d. ca. 535; traditional alternates 528, 536), the legendary Indian monk reckoned by the Chinese Chán tradition as the Twenty-Eighth Indian Patriarch (Xītiān èr-shí-bā zǔ 西天二十八祖) and the First Chinese Patriarch (zhōng-huá chū-zǔ 中華初祖). The tradition represents him as a son of the king of a southern Indian state, a dharma-heir of Prajñātāra 般若多羅, arriving in China by sea via Guǎngzhōu during the Liu-Sòng / Southern Liáng, meeting the Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 in an unsuccessful interview, crossing the Yangzi to the North (the zhé-lú dù-jiāng 折蘆渡江 “breaking a reed to cross the river” episode), residing at the Shǎolín sì 少林寺 on Mount Sōng 嵩山, and there sitting in nine years of wall-contemplation (bì-guān 壁觀, hence the epithet Bì-guān póluómén 壁觀婆羅門) before transmitting the dharma-seal to Huìkě 慧可. Subsequently regarded as having died by poisoning and been buried at Xiongěr-shān 熊耳山; traditional death dates include Dàtōng 2 (528) and Dàtóng 1 (535).
The historical substrate is more limited. The earliest reliable reference is the Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 of Dàoxuān (645), which records a Damo or Dharma as a Central Asian (南天竺) monk of the early 6th century, associated with the Lengjia jing 楞伽經 teaching lineage in north China, and identifies Huìkě as his disciple. The elaborate biographical narrative consolidated only through the Táng dynasty, reaching canonical form in the Zǔtáng jí 祖堂集 and the Jǐngdé chuándēng lù 景德傳燈錄 in the early-to-mid Sòng.
Bodhidharma’s teaching as transmitted in texts of plausibly early-Chán origin — notably the Èrrù sìxíng lùn 二入四行論 (“Two Entrances and Four Practices”) surviving in Dūnhuáng manuscripts and as gate 3 of the Shǎoshì liù mén (KR6q0084) — centres on the distinction between lǐ rù 理入 (entrance-through-principle, via direct recognition of buddha-nature) and xíng rù 行入 (entrance-through-practice, via four conduct-modes: bàoyuān 報冤, suíyuán 隨緣, wúsuǒqiú 無所求, chēngfǎ xíng 稱法行). All subsequent Chinese Chán doctrinal development takes this schema as its starting point.
Works attributed in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0084 Shǎoshì liù mén 少室六門 (six-gate compilation, T48 n2009). The entire collection is pseudepigraphic in the strict sense: none of the six texts is securely Bodhidharma’s in its received form, though the Èrzhǒng rù (gate 3) preserves material plausibly from his immediate milieu. Further texts (Xuèmài lùn, Wùxìng lùn, Ānxīn fǎmén, etc.) circulate also as independent manuscripts and are separately canonised in the Xù zàng jīng 續藏經.
Per DILA A001361: death 535 (some sources 528); native of Nán-tiānzhú 南天竺 (southern India); lineage Chánzōng 禪宗; teacher Prajñātāra 般若多羅; disciples Huìkě 慧可 and Dàoyù 道育; disciple Tánlín 曇林 collected the Dámó lùn 達摩論 attributed sayings.